Never used a quick disconnect but I suppose a sharp knife could do the trick in an emergency. Not sure of what type of problem you would need to cut the boat loose in a hurry. What were you thinking of?

Powell has some really bad rollers in the main channel, in fact our dealer had a boat go down this summer due to it. A sharp knife would work, was hoping for something a little less permanent. Don't think we'll need them, just want to make sure we have it covered

If you are that worried don't tow in the main channel, have someone drive the boat. I would advise against towing with ballast in the boat, including lead. A bow cover works well too. I actually had a local upholstery shop make a custom bow cover for my boat. I used the front part of an old cover, I don't have snaps. It is ugly but doesn't allow the rollers to enter the boat, they just splash off the windshield.

we won't fill that ballast and we don't have any lead in the boat so that shouldn't be an issue. Some of us are going to be riding in the boat even if it is towed so we will just start her up and drive if the water gets bad.

Thanks guys. We will have some people in the boat, so all should be well. Just need to be on the look out. The channel of powell isn't your normal situation. We've put rollers all the way through a house boat before...

Bow cover + fill the rear ballast a bit - keeps the nose out of the water. Keep all the weight out of the front and if you can, make your towpoint higher on the houseboat (we would use the top of the railing if possible) Not sure on the size of the swells there but that's always worked for me when houseboating and storms come up.

Not sure how the cops are at Powell, but they tried to give us a ticket at Shasta for not wearing vests in the boat while being towed. They considered it a towable at that point, kind of took the fun out of hanging out while being towed at 5 mph..

I have been to Powell many times, and even during the worst storms, never had an issue with a potential sinking. A cover on the bow is a great idea though. We did have some concerns one time when we beached during a storm and the waves were coming over the BACK of the boat! Nothing more than a bunch of sand to clean up as the bilge did fine with the water that came in.

Most of the storms I've been through during the day haven't been too bad, some at night have been enough to pull the moring out on the houseboat. It's not the storms I worry about when towing through the channel, you can see those coming, it's the rollers from some of the big ass boats you don't see coming.

I was swamped once in the main channel between Warm creek and Gunsight (about channel marker 12 to 16) didn't do any damage just a really wet carpet. If its busy in the main channel un hook and drive your boat till it opens up again just to be safe. The tour boats are the ones I always worry about. I never tow thru the narrows. NEVER!

The way I have always understood the law is if your boat is not under its own power all aboard are supposed to ware their life jacket. I could be wrong.

Direct drives are more prone to problems being towed because the weight is more centered.

Somehow a guy lost his X45 on my local small lake yesterday with one of those sudden severe thunderstorms. Definitely operator error on the small lake, but at Powell, sometimes all you can do is pray and hold on. A guy that I work with had his brother go down in the storm referenced above. His X30 got pounded against the shore and put full of water and sand. Totaled the boat.